Swimming Lessons

Ali is turning seven next month and we still HAD one thing she would NOT agree to do before then. She loves swimming, but she never gets her face wet. She will not stick her face under water. We recently started talking more and more about baptism since it is a year away, and Ali officially announced "I can't get baptized then because I am NOT getting my face wet!!"
After a lot of discussions about swimming and how much fun it will be she finally agreed to take lessons from one of our neighbors, who is great, and was her primary teacher. She agreed on the condition that it would be her and her cousins. I am so grateful for cousins that can help get my daughter excited for things!!

So after her first day, she not only was dunking her self under water, but she was gliding, floating on her back, and holding her breath under the water for at least 5 seconds!! It was exciting. She loved it and loves that she gets to go everyday!!!

Bottle Free

So made two challenges for ourselves last week, we wanted to paint and switch the kids rooms around, and the second was we wanted to get Cam officially off of his bottle. I was way excited about the first, and completely dreading the second.
When I took Cam in for his 2 year old apt. at the Doctor I asked him what a good age to take them off the bottle is and his response was "a year ago!!" I realized there must have been some kind of mis-understanding because I didn't get him on a bottle until he was 1- so I was a little bugged!!
So now that he LOVES his bottles and is constantly asking for them, I decided it was time. He was waking up a lot asking for a bottle, and he would wake up a lot more because he was soaking wet, so many things officially made it visible that it was time.
I realize that it is always the parents that make things harder than sometimes they need to be, but his bottle to me just made life easier, more convenient, and soothed him instantly, so I was not to excited. We planned to do it on a day fro would be home to help me be strong. So it happened to all fall on the same day!! We painted and endured some serious crying all in one day. Never try that- it isn't pretty!!!


We had Cam help us gather up all of his bottles and stick them in a bag. As we were gathering them all he just wasn't sure what we were doing. Then we told him we were going to stick them on the front porch and give them away to other kids. Well that wasn't cool in his book. We set them out there than Ali ran around to the front door and left him a awesome suprise. As he re-opened the door to see some cool CARS sets he was pretty excited and didn't care a thing about the bottles.
He had been wanting the Cars "sheriff" and "sally" really bad, so we got them along with a few of the other characters and he was so excited.
As the day progressed he hadn't asked once for a bottle. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. AS it got closer to nap time I got nervous. Since we were switching all the furniture around and painting I didn't have a bed to lay him in that would stay quiet. So we layed him in his crib and had to just wait to finish painting. He wanted a bottle pretty badly and we had to stay strong and let him cry for over an hour. It isn't pretty trying to complete a job and listen to your child crying and crying. Finally he stopped and I knew we made it over the first small hurdle.
As bed time came he was now in a different room, with part of his crib off the front so he could get in and out to learn to sleep in a big boy bed. Not a good idea!! Way to many adjustments for a 2 year old. He was so excited about his new bed, but bottles were not to far from his mind. I kept saying the bottles are gone and you got a "whoo whooo" that is what he calls the sheriff. As the night progressed and he was getting tired he finally gave up on the bottle and came out of his room with two binkies in his mouth. The funniest part of it all is he has NEVER taken a binkie!!! So there he was exhausted and walking around with two binkis in his mouth. He fell right to sleep, and I was so glad we made it through day 1 of NO bottle!!


The next day he asked a few times for his bottles and Ali and I just kept saying "your a big boy now, you don't have bottles!" Well he pretty much thought I was lying about not having any bottles, so he made his way to the counter and got up to check the cupboard with the bottles. He kept pulling some old sippys out and came to realize there were NO BOTTLES!!! It was cute to watch him realize, there are none. He still is struggling with the staying in his room without his crib, but at least he stopped asking for a bottle- it has been Heavenly!!!

Summer Tennis

I asked Ali over and over again about things she would want to do this summer. Well it was exciting to hear "Play Tennis" repeatedly!! Having played tennis in High school I had my excited and proud moment, that maybe it would continue to be an interest to Ali.
So we started by signing her up for 1 week at the Ivory Ridge Tennis Club. I would have loved to do all summer, but really who can afford that!! So after day one, I was convinced that not only did she LOVE it, but we had to go to our courts right after her lesson.
She is taking with her two cousins, and they make it really fun for the kids, and teach them all at the same time!!

Cam of course had to come support his sister, and I spent most of the time making sure he didn't throw a ball at someone, or hit them with his racket. It was very entertaining!!


Alis teachers name is Winnie and she has a fun accent and it is fun to listen to her tell the kids how to do things. Ali did show so much interest that we did sign her up for even more tennis, and I am so excited for this new found excitement and interest from Ali!!

PG Waterfall

 

Last Friday for our "Summer of Fun" day we planned to hike up to the Pleasant Grove waterfall. I was a little nervous to take Cam, but my sister re-assured me it wasn't to hard, and he would be fine. So leaving around 10 to beat the 3:00 predicted rain showers we headed up to the waterfall. My mom and dad decided to come along with my sisters, Brittany, her husband, Heather, and her husband ,and me and Brooke. It was a beautiful day and the kids were loving exploring everything.

As we were walking along the trail there were suddenly a lot of youth coming towards us. More and More just kept coming and so I asked what kind of group they were. Come to find out they were having a STAKE youth conference up this trail also!!! How convenient- 150 other people all hiking this trail at the same time!!!
Luckily with Cam we were so slow that they all passed us and it wasn't that big of a deal!!
We discovered that 2 and 3 year olds love climbing on EVERY rock, and so with Christian and Cam we kept a pretty mellow pace. They loved all the rocks and dirt and water!!
The walk wasn't to bad and there was only one steep part at the top that made Cam and Ali a little nervous, and the waterfall was suprisingly big for being in the middle of no where. As we got to the falls there were people repelling down it, and it was loud, and spraying us a little. I think it made Cam a little nervous because for the next 20+ minutes he was hysterical. It was AWESOME!! My dad tried carrying him for me so my back wouldn't hurt, and he wasn't having it at all.
After what felt like forever, he calmed down and my brother in law Johnny took Cam under wing and helped the experience end up on a great note!! We had a great time and the kids all loved it!!

My little Biker Boy!

I have been meaning to post this a while ago, but was waiting to record Cam biking, and now it won't even pull up!! urgh!! One of my Most favorite things right now is watching Cam ride his 2 wheeler. Fro got him a "balance bike" for christmas and I was very skeptical about its abilities. It has NO pedals so I was very confused at how a little guy like Cam would ride it let alone keep up with us on our Pedal bikes. He officially started riding it about a month ago. At first he wobbled side to side, and right when he turned 2 he took off. He gets going so fast and then lifts his legs up and glides. It has officially won my vote for the BEST way to train your kids to ride bikes, No training wheels, and all the drama that goes with them!!
I could watch him do it all day. He loves riding it and it makes me so proud that he JUST turned 2 and is riding a 2 wheeler.
We took him over to some dirt trails that have a hill, and the whole time he laughed and said, "dirt, ride dirt" for days. I think he has a little of his dad in him!!

A lot of people have asked about where to get them because there are not many out there, but we just got ours at Canyon bikes in Draper, and I know that Bingham cyclery also has them!! there you go my plug for the Specialized HOTWALK!! Love them!

Memorial Day 2010-

 

Every Memorial Day it seems like there is a Down hill bike race, and this year was no exception. We were lucky because it happened to be up at Sundace, and that is one of my favorite races of the year. It is beautiful there and there are Trees and streams, and places for my kids to ride their bikes. This year we were SUPER lucky to have 3 of Fros brothers come up. Ben, Nick and Al all came to support Fro in his first DH race of the season, and more importantly came to keep me saine by helping watch my kids for the day. It really was a huge blessing because by about 11 they are bored with me and we are trying to make the day great. This year it was no problem we played games in between races, we played by the water, saw the fish, had a few photo shoots, kicked the ball, played red rover with Mikes kids, rode bikes,and managed to fit the races in between. Fro has been riding a lot at the skate parks on his BMX so I wasn't really sure how well he would do this year. To my amazment he shaved a whole minute off his time from last year!!! That is not easy to do, so the bike park really has helped!! His time from going from the top of Sundance to the bottom was 4:18. He ended up in third, which was awesome and a bummer because the first place rider got 4:14 and the second place rider got 4:17,so they were all so close. It was some good competition, and a lot of fun!!

Schools Out Party

 

Ali and I decided it would be fun to have a "OUt of School" Hula Party with her girl cousins. We bought a whole bunch of Hawaiian decorations and had some Hawaiian activities and tons of fun!!
The girls played freeze dance in thier coconuts and hula skirts, they painted Hawaiian surf boards and showed their Hula skills to my parents as we video taped them. We did nails, ate, laughed, and ended the night with some family videos! We planned on watching Nims Island, but got caught up in the family videos it was hard to turn them off. We are so lucky to have so many fun cousins and have them all so close, they really are Alis' best friends, and we are so blessed by them!! Thanks girls /and Sebi for the fun night!! The next party will be with All the cousins because we really missed having the boys there!!

Field Day

Last week was Alis' last week of school and they had their annual Field Day. Last year we opted to let Ali stay home because of her Asthma, because field day isn't very fun for kids with Asthma. This year however we were suprised to see the excitment she had about going to field day. She told us that kids were practicing doing the running fast. I personally was nervous for her to go run around all morning, but she was very excited.

I got a call the day before asking if I would come help, and personally I was a little relieved that I could be there to make sure she was doing okay. So with her inhaler packed in her jacket and her Hat she was off to field day!!

They lined all the third graders up first, than the second and last the first graders. They lady explained to follow the fence around the school and the finish line was on the other side. So off they went!! Kids were trampled, kids were running crazy, and there was my little Ali in her pink hat running right along the fence. All the other kids were cutting corners, and skipping parts and going wild. It was adorable to watch Ali in her own little stride follow exactly where she was told to go. As they all started coming in I noticed many kids had stopped, were walking and that she had passed a lot of kids. I was so proud of her for doing so great and amongst other things so relieved that her Asthma wasn't a problem for her.

She ran the 50 yard dash and I was so excited that she was in second place until she stopped and looked at me and the other girl passed her putting her into third. When she came over empty handed she was a little bummed and i told her the judge has a whole bunch of girls running at her at the same time it is really hard to tell who wins and who came in when. She didn't seem to worried just glad she loved running. She decided she loved doing the races she wanted to run around the block when she got home- and she did!!

The next day I picked up Ali from school and asked her how her day was. Her face lit up and said, "Well pretty good, I got this!!" she pulled out her 2nd place ribbon for the Fun Run. She was so excited!! She said that they announced in the end of the year assembly the winners of the fun run and they called her name. I knew she did good, but I didn't know she did that good!! At first I thought they gave them to all the kids to make them feel good, but then my neighbor told me how awesome she did and that they only gave them to the first second, and third place kids in their grades. I was so proud of her, and amazed that this little girl we always discouraged from running to hard, did amazing!!! Good job Ali, we will never slow you down again!!!